We already know that Eve Risser is a pianist, a composer, a rising star of the new French wave of improvisers - as shown in her participation to ONJ - an active member of French-German UMLAUT collective and a regular member of small and average sized groups. But this tentet of a new kind is THE news of the day. Given: a keyboard, two hands, ten fingers, ten musicians, a moving and modular orchestra... Eve Risser has used mineralogical and geological data to imagine the fascinating route of this "White Desert Orchestra", weaving in and out plunging passages, rifts where Jazz stratums can be seen on the side, classical and contemporary music, until an unpredictable equilibrium is eventually reached. And then back to reverie.

The first White Desert Orchestra songbook has been co-produced by Banlieues Bleues and Jazzdor Strasbourg festivals with a grant from DRAC Ile-de-France in 2015. Production: www.colore.fr

HAMID DRAKE / BERNARD LUBAT / MICHEL PORTAL

One thing leading to another... It all started in the sixties for these all-time accomplices, improvising weavers Bernard Lubat and Michel Portal who never ceased to weave and mix on their loom. It all started again in 2012 with Michel Portal and Hamid Drake's chance meeting at Le Mans' Europa Jazz Festival (they met again next year at Sons d'hiver). Some meetings, when they take place, appear to be inevitable between musicians who did everything to get to this point and won't even stop there. Indeed, it all started again in 2015: all was put back into play at Porquerolles Jazz Festival where all three met together at last. Drake, Lubat and Portal, the names say it all: the promise of a permanent challenge.